Matthew Grant finishes 3rd at MYWA finals
Matthew Grant of Onaway finished third at the Michigan Youth Wrestling Association (MYWA) state finals over the weekend in Battle Creek. Matthew was competing at 112 pounds in the 2001-02 age group.
Matthew started off the weekend when he took to the mat at 4:30 on Friday afternoon with 29 other kids in his bracket. He wrestled Kyle Moll of Hudson in the first round and won by fall at the 2:41 mark.
In the second round he wrestled Nick Elliot of the Falcon Wrestling Club and Matthew again won by fall in 2:17. In the quarter finals things stiffened up in a hurry but he held his composure and battled to a 4-0 decision, cementing himself in the semi finals and securing all-state status.
“He showed off his ability to think through difficult situations during this match and impressed me once again with his thought processes in the middle of a very intense match,” said coach Mark Grant.
In the semi finals he faced Sage Serbenta (Lowell) who has won the finals on multiple occasions. Matthew got the first takedown and battled every second but fell 8-3 and moved down to the consolation semi finals.
“It was nice to hear the young man who beat him tell us how he was concerned about wrestling Matthew after watching him compete in his earlier matches. He apparently made a good impression on Sage and we talked with him a bit after the match only to discover that he is quite impressive off the mat as well as on it,” said coach Grant.
In the consolation semis he avenged an early season loss to Austin Wolford (All American Grappling Academy) by a score of 5-3,which put him in the 3rd place bout. The score was actually 5-1 in the closing seconds when Matthew found himself in less than perfect position and bailed out to surrender a two-point reversal and not risk being put to his back. He controlled the match right from the opening takedown over a very tough kid.
In the finals, going for third place, Matthew would again face someone he had lost to on three different occasions over the past several years.
“Knowing that he is wrestling as good as he ever has, Matthew went right to work by scoring the first takedown and ultimately won the bout 14-0, securing third place. That is the highest place for him to finish and only the second time that he has medaled at this very tough event,” said coach Grant.
Matthew has made some great strides over the past year and he attributes much of his success to his “brothers” Joe Traynham and Isaac Nave who push him every time they get on the mat. “I can’t imagine a kid Matthew’s age having better workout partners than those two guys along with the emergence of Colby Pauly, Gavin and Brendan Fenstermaker. They are all learning how to work together to make each other better and nothing but good things will happen for them if they continue down this road. Matthew owes each of them a debt of gratitude because he can’t have this kind of success without good people around him,” said coach Grant.
NOT TO be outdone by her older brother, Maggie Grant finished third in her bracket for the all-girls state tournament on Sunday losing to the eventual champion and runner-up by fall before recording a hard win in her final match over
Maggie also wrestled in the boys’ tournament and her session started at 8 a.m. Saturday morning. In the first round she pinned Antonio Valdez of Dearborn Heights in just 24 seconds to move on to the second round. In round two she lost by fall to Gavin Lougheed of Swartz Creek in 2:41 before dropping into the consolation bracket where she again lost by fall to Brixton Rose of Spring Lake that ended her boys tournament run.
Colby Pauly also was introduced to the MYWA State Finals this year. Although he did not win any bouts he brought back a better understanding of what it takes to compete at that level. Pauly competed at 119 pounds in the 2001-02 age bracket.